MANILA/ZAMBOANGA CITY, 8 May 2004 — Roman Catholic church leaders said yesterday they will mobilize parish priests nationwide to prevent an alleged plot for massive election cheating.
And in the southern Philippines, the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday urged its members to take part in the elections, but it also banned its fighters from campaigning for politicians.
Officers of the church-backed Coalition for Honest and Peaceful Elections disclosed that groups of colonels and generals met separately with bishops recently and revealed parts of an alleged “grand plan” to cheat in Monday’s polls.
The coalition refused to identify who was behind the plot, but said both the administration and the opposition were capable of fraud. “Protect your right to freely elect our leaders,” a coalition statement said. “Don’t let the thieves, cheaters and liars win in any election.”
Military Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia told ABS-CBN television the officers’ allegation “is not something that we will take lightly” and that it would be investigated.
Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, the country’s highest-ranking prelate, urged archbishops and bishops to take part in an anti-fraud operation called “Operation Tutok” — “Operation Monitor” — in all dioceses and parishes “to ensure that the election is honest, peaceful and orderly.”
“We must pray but we must also do something,” he said. “If we will all cooperate, there will still be an honest election.”
Ernesto Ordonez, a former Cabinet member and deputy director of the coalition, said the officers gave the bishops a copy of a document allegedly outlining parts of the plot.
Other parts were revealed by some government employees, including Elections Commission officials, he added.
Coalition director Antonio de los Reyes said the plot includes a variety of counting and ballot theft scams and use of violence to coerce voters to vote in certain ways.
De los Reyes said the plot is “much larger than anything that has happened before.”
“If both sides are accusing each other of this, there must be some truth to it,” he said.
Opposition Plot
On Thursday, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales accused the opposition of plotting a campaign of violence if it loses Monday.
He said the plot includes bombings and organizing a massive rally similar to the failed bid by tens of thousands supporters of former President Joseph Estrada to storm the presidential palace to oust President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo three years ago.
The opposition Coalition of United Filipinos denounced his claim as “highly irresponsible ... because it tends to scare the people from casting their ballots, and highly incendiary for actually inciting violence.”
Ordonez said one way to prevent fraud is for citizens to closely monitor the election process.
He said parish priests can easily mobilize volunteers to man the more than 200,000 polling stations, watch the counting and monitor the transfer of official results from precincts to town and provincial centers.
There are about 2,800 parish priests and 85 bishops directly handling dioceses nationwide.
Eid Kabalu, spokesman of the separatist MILF, said there was no truth to some news reports quoting the MILF vice chairman for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar as saying that their fighters were banned from directly or indirectly participating in the elections.
“That is not true, MILF members are free to vote their choice of politicians as long as they don’t break the rules against participating in any political campaigns,” Kabalu said.
“MILF members, who are registered voters, can join the Philippine elections, but we strictly warned them against joining any political campaign. They can only elect and vote their choice of government officials, but they cannot join political rallies because it is strictly prohibited,” he added.
He also said that the MILF intensified its monitoring system to make sure members observed the ban. Manila is currently negotiating peace with the MILF in an effort to strike a deal that would end more than three decades of hostilities in Mindanao, a region rich in natural resources, but torn by war. (Additional input from AP, Reuters)
